SilverDragon

SilverDragon tracks rares. It will try everything possible to notice them and tell you about them.

I, as its author, have precisely one quirk: I like a minimal starting experience. That means that *by default* SilverDragon doesn't know about any rare mobs, and will just learn about them when you encounter new ones. If you want more advance warning, just go to the "Mobs" section of SilverDragon's options and either enter a few mobs you want to look for, or click "import data" to pull in a complete list of every known rare mob and its locations.

## How does it search?

### Vignettes

Those little skull icons you see on the minimap. If one of them is a rare SilverDragon knows about, it'll yell at you.

### Targets

If you mouse over or target a rare mob, SilverDragon will notice it.

This is the also how SilverDragon learns about *new* rares in the wild. After you first mouse over or target one, it'll remember it, and start watching for it in the cache in the future.

### Nameplates

If you have enemy nameplates turned on, SilverDragon will keep an eye on them to look for the names of known rares. This is the least exact method, because nameplates don't expose the underlying mob's id, so we have to rely on a plain name comparison.

Addons that modify nameplates may interfere with this.

### Macro

SilverDragon can also create a macro to target any rares that are known in the current zone. You can stick this on your actionbars as a button to spam while chasing after a rare. This is sort of a last resort.

## How will I know when a rare is seen?

### Frame

When a rare appears, SilverDragon will pop up a frame that you can click on to target it.

Warning: If you're in combat, secure action restrictions mean that it won't show up until combat finishes.

### Sounds

You can choose from assorted sounds to play when a rare is seen. The sound can loop for a while, to make sure you don't miss it.

There's special settings for rares that drop mounts and world boss rares which you might want to call up a group for. If you're sitting mostly-AFK on a Time-Lost Proto Drake spawn, you probably want the sound that plays to be utterly ridiculous and go on for a good long while, to make *sure* you don't miss that sucker.

In SilverDragon's options you'll find a "Mobs" section. In the "Always" section, you can add any mob you want to be scanned for. All you need to know is the mob id.

So, let's say you wanted to keep an eye out for Lil Timmy in Stormwind, to buy the kitten he sells. You would...

1. Go to his [wowhead page](http://www.wowhead.com/npc=8666/lil-timmy).
1. Grab his id from the URL. It's `8666`.
1. Enter `8666` into the "add" field, and click "okay".
1. Play with your new kitten.

### Ignoring mobs

If there's some mob you don't want to hear about for whatever reason, just go to the "Ignore" section of the options. Again, enter the mob's id into the "add" box, then click okay. Bam! You will never again be told that Vern is up.

(Actually, Vern is ignored by default. But you get the idea.)

### Syncs

SilverDragon will talk to itself. It can communicate with other copies of itself run by people in your party / guild, and tell you when they see a rare mob. (If there's a group of you camping all the Time-Lost Proto Drake spawns, say...)

You can turn this off completely, if you want to be private about it.

### Tooltips

Some rares are part of an achievement. When you mouse over a rare mob, SilverDragon will add to the tooltip whether you've already killed it, so you know whether you need to rush for it.

### Broker

SilverDragon includes a Broker plugin. It'll attach itself to your minimap, or a Broker container you have installed, and show you a list of the mobs it knows about in the current zone.

## Clearing the cache

You can clear the mob cache by quitting WoW and deleting creaturecache.wdb from the `Cache\WDB\enUS` (or your actual locale) sub-directory in your WoW directory.

If you're running Windows Vista or 7, your Cache is actually NOT in the WoW install directory. Instead it will be at `C:\Users\(username)\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Cache`

## Other addons you may find useful

* [ServerRestartSound](http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/serverrestartsound): plays a sound when the server's about to restart. If you're AFK-camping for a rare spawn, you probably want to know about this.
* [HandyNotes](http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/handynotes): integrates with SilverDragon to show icons on zone maps where a rare has been seen.
* [_NPCScan.Overlay](http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/npcscan-overlay): shows rare mob paths for some rares, and can be told to pop up if SilverDragon sees something.
* [ChocolateBar](http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/chocolatebar): a broker display. SilverDragon's minimap icon will show up on it (or any other addon like it) instead of cluttering up your minimap, if you have it installed.

## Why should I use this instead of _NPCScan?

_NPCScan is all about scanning the cache. If a mob winds up already in your cache, it'll do nothing at all to help you. SilverDragon tries to fall back on more things, to give you the best chance of finding rares.

If you want to run across rares while leveling, SilverDragon helps with that. _NPCScan is solely a max-level tool.

Ultimately it's a matter of personal preference. :-P

## What's new with version 3?

Most of the addon has been rewritten so that its internals are entirely based on mob ids and zone ids, neither of which were available to the client back when 2.0 was written back in early 2009. This was also a great opportunity to stop having to lug so much localization code around.

Changelog

Changed in v4.0.3

Updated for 7.3

Argus mobs

Some new backend support for hiding junk rares (i.e. the Treasure Goblins, and some class-specific ones)

Changed in v4.0.2

TOC for 7.2

Questids for various world bosses

Changed in v4.0.1

New feature: automatic hiding of the popup after you've not interacted with it for a while (default: 30 seconds)

Added text input to the ignore options, so you don't have to find the mob in its expansion

Improved the text input for ignore/custom, so you can enter "target", "mouseover", the mob's id, the mob's name (if we know about it)

Properly faction-classify all remaining faction-specific rares

Lots more Legion rare questids

Cleaned up a lot of tight clusters of the same mob on the map

Added some fallbacks for mob-names so it's less likely you'll see "Unknown"

The wrong Gorok had been included for ages, in Warlords. Sorry, Horde garrison havers.

Fixed some of the database migration code

Changed in v4.0.0

Major rewrite to remove the "import data" paradigm

Known mobs are now in per-expansion datasets, which you can disable entirely

Various skins for the click-target popup (mostly based on the various loot toasts, admittedly)

Show on popup whether the mob is dead, and try to pick this up during combat via combat-log events

Rearranged the options a lot

Marker will now respect other announcement settings

Changed in v3.2.9

TOC for 7.1

More Legion vignettes and questids

Changed in v3.2.8

CreateTitleRegion was removed by Blizzard, requiring some minor rewriting

More Legion vignettes and questids

Changed in v3.2.7

Option to not alert on rare mobs we've already killed, if we know the achievement / questid for them

Maybe I should rephrase that as "I don't want to go back and find some mob I flew over while traversing the continent." I'd be interested in an option that allows us to turn off rares detection while on non-directed travel...

Originally posted by Nathanyel Actually, you can log out and back in, that will stop your flight at the next "checkpoint", the flight points inbetween that the map was showing as part of the route when you started the flight.
Then you'll have a shorter way to the location of the rare - if it's still alive, of course.
Keep in mind though that old Azeroth often has longer flight paths where you don't visit points inbetween, e.g. Thunder Bluff<>Orgrimmar, TB<>Gadgetzan. The game will not automatically pick the closest flight point and land there, but instead continue to the next point that was displayed on the flight master map.

Originally posted by torin There's nothing I can do about it since I can't stop the flight

Actually, you can log out and back in, that will stop your flight at the next "checkpoint", the flight points inbetween that the map was showing as part of the route when you started the flight.
Then you'll have a shorter way to the location of the rare - if it's still alive, of course.
Keep in mind though that old Azeroth often has longer flight paths where you don't visit points inbetween, e.g. Thunder Bluff<>Orgrimmar, TB<>Gadgetzan. The game will not automatically pick the closest flight point and land there, but instead continue to the next point that was displayed on the flight master map.

I haven't made it to Northrend or Outland yet, so I can't fly yet. Or at least all the flying that I do is by Gryphon/Hippogriff/Bat between cities. It's annoying when I'm in the midst of such a flight and I get told about a rare. There's nothing I can do about it since I can't stop the flight and that rare has now been "seen". Is there anything to do about this?

Originally posted by Maelynn It seems the newest version isn't working the way it should. When it spots a rare mob, I can't click the label any longer to target it.

I thought deleting the SD files in my WTF folder would be sufficient, but it doesn't help. In addition, as soon as I hit "import data" on my main in Dal it found Vern - something that the newest version shouldn't be doing anymore.

I can't reproduce the non-targeting. (I just ran out and tried it on Sergeant Brashclaw in Westfall, the most reliably-up rare I know of.)

I did, however, discover that I uploaded the wrong version yesterday. I just uploaded it again, and this time it really doesn't have Vern in it.

It seems the newest version isn't working the way it should. When it spots a rare mob, I can't click the label any longer to target it.

I thought deleting the SD files in my WTF folder would be sufficient, but it doesn't help. In addition, as soon as I hit "import data" on my main in Dal it found Vern - something that the newest version shouldn't be doing anymore.

__________________Just remember... if the world didn't suck, we'd all fall off.

Originally posted by Kemayo I can't say that I've ever noticed that. However, if you take a look at this alpha on wowace, I've added an option for it to not scan for rares inside instances. That might solve your problem.

I'm not sure why, but I noted it was a particular problem inside instances prior to BC. I spent a good deal of time farming a Black Blade of Shahram in UBRS on my Death Knight, and would regularly experience interface lag in "pulses". By a long process of elimination, I found that SilverDragon, once disabled, stopped these lag pulses from occurring.

I assumed it has something to do with the way SD scans for mobs, but really, I'm no expert on code.

Yes having to use the Blizzard map because Catographer has not been updated and the icons are not showing on the map. also have seen a rare popup, but no rare to be seen around so not quite sure what or why that is happening anyone solved the icon problem or is someone working on it?

Both descriptions given regarding that instruction seem inaccurate to me after using this for a long time. I don't have nameplates visible. The only time I see a mob name is if I mouseover it or click on it. However, I've had the rare popup thing appear multiple times for the same mobs I've already seen if they are there again another day... even if they aren't on my screen and I can't see them/no mouseover/no target. I also have never gotten false readings when entering a new zone after importing the data. The only "false" reading I ever had wasn't really false, but was an undead rare in Western Plaguelands that was invisible. I could target him but could not attack him. I looked up comments on that mob and it seems others have had issues seeing it also... they even commented on being attacked by the mob without being able to defend. I was too high level to be attacked unless I managed to get almost right on top of it. I've had a similar situation on a normal murloc in Wetlands as well, where it attacked me but was not visible.

Anyhow, I'm not really sure the meaning of that sentence, but I don't get "dummy" notices (ever) and I get popups on the same mob even when not on my screen (in buildings, behind walls or hills, etc). If anything, *maybe* it just means you'll get one popup without targeting or mouseover until logout for the same mob.

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